High-Altitude Balloon Launch This Weekend - How To Track Our Flight

Image Taken From Our Previous High-Altitude Balloon flight at over 90,000 ft​

Members of the Nashua Area Radio Society will again be launching a High-Altitude Balloon (HAB) to the edge of space and back this Saturday, October 28th at approximately 15:00z (11 am Eastern Time). Our HAB will carry a 2m APRS Transmitter and will send position and atmospheric telemetry to the ground during its flight. Our HAB can be tracked via APRS on 144.390 MHz or via the Internet using aprs.fi. Our HAB will be flying using the call sign N1FD-11.

Predicted Flight Path for our HAB's Flight​

We expect our HAB's flight to last about 2 1/2 hours and cover a distance of approximately 100 km. We are hoping to reach an altitude of over 105,000 ft before the balloon bursts.

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You can read more about our launch plans and how to track our HAB-2's flight here. The previous link also includes a high-resolution, full-screen version of the video above from our first HAB's flight.

Launching HAB-1​

Our HAB launch is part of a STEM learning project that the Nashua Area Radio Society is doing in partnership with schools here in New Hampshire. You can read more about the project and our STEM work on our Blog here -

https://www.n1fd.org/tag/high-altitude-balloon/

Enjoy!

Fred, AB1OC
President, Nashua Area Radio Society

 

Cool, maybe this time I will be able to copy it from NNJ.

Never have copied any balloon launch before.

Good luck.

 

...OR, were you just hoping it didn't collide with an aircraft? Wonder what the FAA thinks about the launching of unguided/uncontrolled debris into the flight paths of especially commercial aircraft And, considering the POSTED TRACK of this floating debris, it's all the evidence I require to make a legitimate point about how dangerous this was.

 

Awesome Ill be tracking and not to worry about the Negative people out there. Ballooning is just as safe as a flying a kite....Ive done over 145 experiments with mine for over 15 years now.as its Called EOSRED....your covered as for each package weight as for 6 lbs With all the FAA rules and Regs. and youve done all your planning .Ill be watching and tracking .Mine next one is planned for next early summer again.......so good luck and a thumbs up.......WWW.W1LWT.com..............Aprs : k1AOM or when in flight :EOSRED..........W1LWT-LEE

 

The safe way to do this (which is what we do) is to file a NOTAM (a flight plan) with the FAA. The APRS Tx on the balloon should be able to receive the packets in a good portion of New England once the balloon is at altitude. For sure, tracking via aprs.fi will work. Our call sign will be N1FD-11.

 

Congratulations!!! Nice Job!!! 73's Miguel PY1KZ

 

Nicely done project and documentation of the flight! Congratulations to the team!! Good luck on your next adventure. 73...John

 

Fred,
Congrates to the team,

a really UFB Project!
my best regards from austria.

 

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=radiosondy polska

 

I heard back from the recovery team. HAB took a bit of a water landing around a couple of ponds near Saco/ Old Orchard Beach, Maine, area. Maybe Lyman, ME? I think they mentioned you can see the parachute on one of island beaches. Jamey (KC1ENX) is breaking out the kayak to recover.

 

We have recovered our HAB and its on its way back to NH from Maine. The flight modeling (see above) was quite accurate in predicting the flight path of our HAB. See the image below which is the actual flight track based upon the APRS telemetry from the HAB during its flight -



Our burst altitude was quite a bit higher than we predicted at +117,500 ft. -


The media is starting to come in from everyone who attended our launch. We'll post more here over the next few days.

Congratulations to our students at Bishop-Guertin HS here in Nashua, NH of a great flight!

- Fred, AB1OC

 

Awesome, well done!

 

Nicely done! Launching balloons in NH can be interesting due to the ocean nearby.
Glad it was recovered.
For those of you wanting to track more of these, bookmark the following:
http://arhab.org/hab_launch_list.php
As a commercial airline pilot, and usually working weekends, I have seen my share of these. Usually
we are notified by ATC of its location long before it might be a problem.
Yes, those balloon envelopes get REALLY large at altitude!
73 Kriss KA1GJU/AM

 

I am sure he has the FAA approved radar reflector installed above his payload.

 

Our students got together yesterday to analyze the data from their HAB's flight and to preview some of the videos from the Balloon and its recovery. Here's an article about what the students learned from the project.

https://www.n1fd.org/2017/11/03/high-altitude-balloon-data/

Fred, AB1OC